EA Still Fighting for Deal with Bungie

Electronic Arts lost their bid to publish Bungie’s new IP to Activision, who recently secured a 10-year exclusive publishing deal with the developer. Still, EA is still optimistic about sealing a new deal with Bungie — if, of course, Bungie has plans for a second project.

EA’s clearly keeping an eye out for any opportunities to sign Bungie after the big boss Brian Jerrard noted in an interview that another IP may be “possible down the road.”

In an interview with CVG, EA Partners manager David DeMartini said that the plans they’d made didn’t make financial sense, and the deal was called off:

“We had extensive conversations with them, but could never really figure out a deal that made sense for both of us. It just didn’t come to fruition. Obviously, they were able to come up with some kind of deal that made sense to Activision and made sense to Bungie and we hope they make great games. It’s healthy for the industry to have big independent studios that are making great products.

“I don’t want to see them fail – I want them to be successful. And when they start up a second team, we’ll have other discussions with them about that game as well – because they’re a great studio. There are probably only 20 studios in the world that are that highest level – and they’re certainly one of them.”

DeMartini also noted that Bungie would have been a “great fit” for the Partners program, given the profiles of the other developers that have signed on in the past.

Activision had been in discussion with Bungie for the last nine months before putting pen to paper on last month. Obviously not to be taken lightly – the entire gaming industry is holding their breath while we wait for an update on the IP that Bungie promises will be even more mind-blowing than the Halo universe. Strap yourselves in, it’s shaping up to be a wild decade!